Personal Narrative: My First Jazz Concert

If you didn’t know the book I was reading was Being Jazz. Jazz is a transgender, but her book is telling us the audience her difficulties of becoming a transgender. When she was born Jazz had two brothers and one sister. Although, before she was born, her mother and her friends did this traditional thing to tell if the mother was going have a boy or girl. So how this works is well you have a necklace and you move it around the tummy of the baby. If it’s going back and forth then it’s going be a boy, but if it goes around circles it's gonna be girl. However, when the last baby shower happened the necklace was going in circles which met the baby was going be a girl. When the mother gave birth the baby was a……. BOY! Even though the necklace went

It seems like I have been waiting years for my letter to come in the mail. Just last month I sent out my application to see if I can get into Juilliard School of Dance, in New York. I live in Springfield, Massachusetts. Juilliard is where only pro dancers, the best of the best, the real shining stars can get into. Ballet has been my passion since I could walk. If I don’t get in, my life is over! All I want to do in life is perform, not sitting down having to fill out paperwork the whole day in a crowded office, or stuck behind a fryer, serving greasy, crusty food to ungrateful customers. Ballet is my escape from that.

Although there are many objects and things that can define my culture, I believe that my music taste, my language and my manners makes me who I am today.

“There’s a moment you’ve been waiting all your life for. When you find the very reason you’re alive for.” This semester included a small moment in my life, which had an impact on my life. My love for musicals began to heighten beginning college. I have created a fifteen-hour musical soundtrack playlist, to paying $400 to watch “Hamilton: An American Musical” in Chicago. Musicals have a way of inspiring individuals and have increased my drive to work in the entertainment business. This semester, I casually looked at what musicals were playing in the Indianapolis area, and I came across the musical “Finding Neverland.” I ended up getting tickets for the October 20 show. Little did I know this show would have such an impact on me.

Ever since I was a young kid, I was extremely fond of music. Music was all around me: on the television, in school, at the store, and especially in the car. Not only did I love to listen to music, but I loved to play it as well. I am not saying I was any good at playing music, because I was not. But to a young child, hitting their hand on anything could be music, and to me it definitely was.

Unquestionably, playing the trumpet in a diverse range of musical ensembles over the past nine years has led to experiences that have not only shaped me as a musician, but furthermore as a student and as an individual. As early as middle school “Black Dog Jazz Band,” I struggled with the confidence on center stage to perform solos, even with sheet music and the exact notes to be played. Progressing through high school, my skill and my perception were transformed, as improvising measures of music of my own creation were no longer a source of insecurity, but rather an opportunity to display my creative expression and capability as a musician. Fast and difficult chord changes and previously unheard melodies were now uniquely mine, and I perform with a self-assurance in my own interpretations. This composure stemming from years of soloing and jazz band undoubtedly seeped into my academic life, as the poise and self-assurance with which I similarly deliver oral presentations has been clearly and positively impacted.

Standing backstage, mentally going through every measure of music for our performance, me and the other percussionists representing Prosper were about to play our three ensembles that we prepared for the North Texas Percussion Festival. With the group before us finishing their last song, we were all mentally preparing to show the judges the best of what we had spent hours practicing for after school and late into the night. Before we went on stage to set up everything, I thought of where I was just three years ago, not knowing how to properly hold mallets or work well with a group of people.

We were this close to being stripped of our "Undefeated" title. The band sat there in the bleachers, stunned as the announcer pulled up the scores and was ready to reveal first place. Blood rushed through my veins and the butterflies in my stomach were more active as ever. After all of our hard work, it would have been a shame if we did not conclude the season with a bang. The announcer raised her microphone and everything seemed to come to a halt.

The hardest part of the whole experience was looking for parking at the venue. It already being nighttime and the venue parking being 25 dollars we decided to look for cheaper alternatives. We wasted about 45 minutes after we made it to the location looking for free parking. However, with perseverance and luck, we found a spot in a not so good-looking area but we took our chances.

The marching band has also felt like a home away from home. If I wasn’t at home with my parents, I was on the band field. While being in the marching band at my high school, my long-term goal was to become their drum major for my last two years. I wanted to be the drum major that would cause the band members to put every ounce of passion into performing the show. Once I decided this during my freshman year, I put my heart and soul into my band. I stepped up to any work my band director needed help with. Whether it was fundraising or running OMEA (Ohio Music Education Association) events or lining the band field, I was there to show my band director I was ready to be a leader. My setback came when I didn't achieve section leader for the flutes

It was late into the evening when I returned to my high school’s football field to recollect the jacket I had left back. It had finally come, it was the night of my last marching band rehearsal. In that moment, I was alone, but as the neighboring building lights dimly poured into the field, I could imagine the arena glow with life as I thought of my four seasons of marching band. It was at this location, out of many, that provided me the opportunity to share unique memories with my peers and develop my greatest talent: playing the clarinet. I initially chose my instrument without understanding as an elementary school student what band was, but through my first set of rehearsals, I quickly realized that playing an instrument was harder than I had anticipated. That, however, did not discourage me. I grew fond of playing and was determined to practice daily technics that would strengthen my musicianship. As I played into middle school and high school, my lung capacity, along with the ability to keep tempo, improved, but I believed by then that my performances should exemplify more than my skills. Through my participation in marching band and Wind Ensemble, I’ve aspired to take not only the audience, but myself included, into a world beyond music’s notes and phrases. I find comfort to know that I can create something out of pure air and have others find happiness within it. This is what kept me playing for nine years. I have incorporated music deeply into my life, but I believe it does not define me. Instead, I have learned valuable lessons that have benefited me off the stage such on time management and discipline and have grown alongside my talent.

The genre of jazz is one of rich history and also one that is eternally changing. With its roots in African culture and its evolution mainly in the United States, it is quite obvious that the musicians involved in the growth of this music experienced great racial barriers. From its origins in the plantations of the South during times of slavery to its current state as a popular form of music, jazz has been an important tool in the battle against black prejudice. Due to its exposure to white audiences and musicians throughout its history, its use as a weapon against Jim Crow, and its relation to the black power movement of the 1960s, jazz has helped combat racism against blacks in the United States.

time I was going to a Jazz concert. I knew that I wouldn’t be disappointed or

A friend and I went to the Grand Kerfuffle 2016 at the University of Utah. It was a two-day music festival held on April 22 and 23. But I only went to the one on the 22nd which was on a Friday night, unfortunately I was not able to go on the second day. The performances were by the A. Ray Olpin Student Union Building, just outside. They had food, games, and other things by the stage. We sat in front of the stage on one of the grass hills. They had a few performances when we went to it.

Over time there have been many eras of music and many genres. One could say that the Classical music, or the Romantic era has been the most significant in music history. Although those times are very important to the music world, Jazz in the early 20th century is very significant to the history of music in the United States. Next is a little bit of history and what makes Jazz music Jazz.